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Apple announced their new M4 Mac Mini. The Mini is a pretty awesome computer: connect a monitor, plug it in, link up a keyboard and mouse, link it up to your WiFi, and you have a very powerful small desktop.
The stupid design move? THE POWER BUTTON IS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE CASE!
You're going to have cables plugged into the back. Definitely power, your monitor, maybe a couple of USB cables. That's going to have tension. And it might be in a location that's inconvenient to actually lift up the damn thing. Not to mention, people make accessories designed to stack on top of it, or for it to be stacked on top of.
LET'S INVALIDATE ALL OF THAT!
Whoever designed this 'button on the bottom' needs a really serious smack upside the head, and whoever approved it two or three.
'Oh! You can reboot your computer from the keyboard!' Uh, welcome to reality! Sometimes you can't, and you have to reach for the proverbial big red switch! (for those of you who didn't work with the original IBM PC back in the mid 1980s, the power button was literally a big red toggle, hence the term)
Stupid Design Move #2: Apple has a mouse that people really like, I am not among them. It's known as the Magic Mouse - heaven forbid it have a conventional name. The cool thing about it is that the top is actually a track pad! My dislike for it is that I don't like the ergonomics, it's too small and flat, I want a mouse with a bit more heft/volume. Anyway, the first generation ran off of a pair of AAA batteries. The previous generation was rechargeable, but they made a stupid mistake: the cable plugged into the bottom of the mouse at a right angle! You had to flip the mouse onto its top and it was unusable while it charged. It was widely hoped that they would fix that by moving the cable jack to the top with the new redesign.
That hope was dashed with this week's reveal that the port is still on the bottom of the mouse, it is still unusable while charging.
There's a huge number of crazy smart people at Apple, and some amazing product design there. But that doesn't always prevent some really stupid decisions from being made. I'm planning on buying a Mac Mini when it comes time to replace my iMac, which hopefully won't be any time soon. I hope they realize their folly and move the power switch to the back where it belongs when that time comes.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/10/29/apple-stuck-the-mac-mini-power-button-on-the-bottom
The stupid design move? THE POWER BUTTON IS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE CASE!
You're going to have cables plugged into the back. Definitely power, your monitor, maybe a couple of USB cables. That's going to have tension. And it might be in a location that's inconvenient to actually lift up the damn thing. Not to mention, people make accessories designed to stack on top of it, or for it to be stacked on top of.
LET'S INVALIDATE ALL OF THAT!
Whoever designed this 'button on the bottom' needs a really serious smack upside the head, and whoever approved it two or three.
'Oh! You can reboot your computer from the keyboard!' Uh, welcome to reality! Sometimes you can't, and you have to reach for the proverbial big red switch! (for those of you who didn't work with the original IBM PC back in the mid 1980s, the power button was literally a big red toggle, hence the term)
Stupid Design Move #2: Apple has a mouse that people really like, I am not among them. It's known as the Magic Mouse - heaven forbid it have a conventional name. The cool thing about it is that the top is actually a track pad! My dislike for it is that I don't like the ergonomics, it's too small and flat, I want a mouse with a bit more heft/volume. Anyway, the first generation ran off of a pair of AAA batteries. The previous generation was rechargeable, but they made a stupid mistake: the cable plugged into the bottom of the mouse at a right angle! You had to flip the mouse onto its top and it was unusable while it charged. It was widely hoped that they would fix that by moving the cable jack to the top with the new redesign.
That hope was dashed with this week's reveal that the port is still on the bottom of the mouse, it is still unusable while charging.
There's a huge number of crazy smart people at Apple, and some amazing product design there. But that doesn't always prevent some really stupid decisions from being made. I'm planning on buying a Mac Mini when it comes time to replace my iMac, which hopefully won't be any time soon. I hope they realize their folly and move the power switch to the back where it belongs when that time comes.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/10/29/apple-stuck-the-mac-mini-power-button-on-the-bottom
